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Maple Leafs fire GM Brian Burke

The shock of Brian Burke’s firing lingered after the Leafs stunned the hockey world by axing their GM just days before the opening of training camp.

MLSE president Tom Anselmi, right, shakes hands with Dave Nonis after announcing that the team's senior vice-president of hockey operations would take over as Leafs GM on an interim basis. (BERNARD WEIL / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

Brian Burke was fired as Leafs GM with two years and $6 million remaining on his six-year, $18 million contract. (MARK BLINCH / REUTERS FILE PHOTO)

The shock of Brian Burke’s firing lingered Wednesday after the Maple Leafs stunned the hockey world by axing their GM just days before the opening of training camp and the NHL’s lockout-shortened season.

“It’s definitely weird timing,” said forward Mike Brown, among the dozen or so Leaf players who learned of Burke’s firing via Twitter following an informal skate in Etobicoke.

Joffrey Lupul, Brown’s teammate, said he was “completely shocked” by the “sudden” and “unexpected” news.

Burke, whose record in Toronto never matched his bombastic style, still had two years and $6 million remaining on the six-year, $18 million contract he signed in November 2008 with promises to return the franchise to its former glory.

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But with the advent of new ownership — Bell and Rogers sealed the deal to purchase a controlling share in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in August — the team’s corporate executives appear to have lost their appetite for Burke’s bluster, especially as the team’s on-ice fortunes continued to sag.

Saying the change in leadership was about looking for “a different voice,” rather than a change in team philosophy, MLSE president Tom Anselmi said the decision was months in the making and followed an exhaustive review by the new ownership group.

“The news is coming as a shock but the decision didn’t happen overnight,” he said.

Conversations about Burke’s future in Toronto appear to have begun as soon as Bell and Rogers formalized their $1.07 billion purchase of a 75 per cent stake in MLSE from the Teacher’s Pension Plan on Aug. 22.

It was suggested at Wednesday’s press conference that MLSE’s new leadership simply didn’t like Burke’s aggressive style and persona.

“Brian had a style and we knew what we were getting into when he was brought in,” Anselmi said before adding that there are now “sober second thoughts” on Burke’s tenure.

“Did the four years of missing the playoffs factor into the discussion with the shareholders? Sure it did . . . but at the end of the day it was really looking for a different voice.”

Burke will be replaced by Dave Nonis, his assistant and long-time protégé, on an interim basis. Nonis, 46, also replaced Burke nine years ago to become general manager of the Vancouver Canucks following an ownership change in that organization.

“It’s a shock for a lot of people,” Nonis said. “(But) we’re not going to spend a lot of time grieving . . . we have things to do.”

Anselmi said Burke’s firing had nothing to do with rumours of a potential trade with the Vancouver Canucks for goalie Roberto Luongo.

But that didn’t stop Mayor Rob Ford from speculating. Ford told the Toronto Sun he thinks Burke’s inability to pull the trigger on a Luongo deal played “a big factor” in the GM’s firing.

“People were itching to get Luongo in here and he just sat back and watched things happen,” the mayor said. “You’ve got to make things happen in this city — especially when you’re dealing with our hockey team.”

Anselmi similarly denied that the firing had anything to do with Burke’s personal life.

The GM was noted by insiders as having suffered obvious emotional stress after the sudden death of his 21-year-old son, Brendan, two winters ago in a car accident.

Just months before he died, the Miami University athlete came out as a gay man and spoke publicly about the scourge of homophobia in sports.

In the wake of his son’s death, Burke became an outspoken advocate for the gay community and a champion for LGBT equality in sports, regularly walking in Toronto’s Pride parade as a member of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

“In an area where LGBT people haven’t always felt supported, he stood up for us,” said Kevin Beaulieu, executive director of Pride Toronto, adding that Burke’s example and leadership against homophobia in sports have made a lasting impact.

Anselmi said there was not “one incident or any one thing” that led to Burke’s dismissal.

“It’s the product of a conversation that has been going on for some time.”

Burke, 57, arrived in Toronto at the peak of his popularity. Cocksure and fresh off his 2007 Stanley Cup victory in Anaheim, he made pugilistic promises to bring a brawnier brand of hockey to town. The Leafs were to become a team of “pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence,” Burke said upon his hiring.

But it didn’t take long for that forceful phrasing to become a punchline for a punchless team.

Four years later, he leaves utterly defeated, without ever making good on his post-season pledge.

Never shy in front of a microphone, Burke also didn’t hesitate to make splashy deals.

Among his biggest moves were acquiring captain Dion Phaneuf in a seven-player trade with the Calgary Flames in 2010. But his most divisive deal — which will continue to dog his legacy — is a trade he made a year earlier for Boston Bruins sniper Phil Kessel in exchange for two first-round draft picks and one second-round selection.

In three seasons in Toronto, Kessel has scored 99 goals, but the Bruins used their first of the trio of picks to select Tyler Seguin, who has blossomed into one of the game’s brightest young stars.

Burke’s 2007 Stanley Cup victory was the pinnacle of a management career that began when he was hired by Pat Quinn in 1987 to be director of hockey operations in Vancouver.

The Rhode Island native, who was also GM of the U.S. Olympic hockey team, spent a season in 1993 as GM of the Hartford Whalers before taking a post as director of hockey operations with the NHL.

Burke returned to the Canucks as GM in 1998, but as now, he did not survive an ownership change and was fired in 2004.

“There’s no good time to do this,” Anselmi said. “But once you get to a decision . . . you can’t fake it. The relationship between the ownership and the GM is a complex one; it has to work long term and if it will not, you deal with it expeditiously.”

Anselmi said Burke would stay on in the organization as a senior adviser.

Nonis, who called Burke a “friend” and “mentor,” praised the work of his predecessor in assembling the “building blocks” of a successful team.

“People will look back in four or five years from now and realize that Brian Burke did the work that led to success. But we aren’t there yet and we do not have that team yet, and we’ll have to buy time until our younger players come along.”

Nonis, who said there are no plans to remove head coach Randy Carlyle, won’t have much time to prepare. The NHL’s truncated 48-game season is scheduled to begin a week from Saturday.

“We’re going to have a very short window in order to make some decisions about this hockey team,” Nonis said. “We’re going to focus on that right now.”

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